Gov. Chris Christie: The Final Interview

As the never-at-a-loss-for-words governor prepares to step down, he fields questions and puts his administration in perspective — as he sees it

Gov. Chris Christie is leaving the governor’s office after eight years “with very few regrets,” as he told NJTV’s Michael Aron in this exclusive, in-depth interview.

Never one to shun publicity (good or bad) or be shy about what was on his mind (remember “Get the hell off the beach”), Christie admitted, “It’s going to be different for me, not to be in the middle of the scrum every day, you know, I enjoy that.”

“I mean, you know, the scrutiny is intense for anybody,” he continued, “and I think it’s been particularly intense for me. In part, as a Republican in a blue state, and in part, because of my personality and the way I engage, and I do engage.”

Regardless of what Christie says, however, he is leaving office as the least popular governor in New Jersey’s history, his reputation diminished by Bridgegate, Beachgate, and an unsuccessful run for the presidential nomination, which kept him out of the state almost as much as he was home.

Still, he seemed unfazed when Aron pointed out that according to a recent poll very few residents could a single Christie accomplishment. The NJTV chief political correspondent named what he saw as the top 12, to which the former governor replied, “Name another governor that’s got that list of accomplishments, of broad-based, big, consequential things.”